Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao

"Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao" is an upcoming welterweight superfight between #1 pound-for-pound and #2 pound-for-pound fighters Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr., which is scheduled on March 13, 2010. The fight will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.. Negotiations began for the fight on November 24th, 2009 between Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer and Top Rank Promotions head Bob Arum.
Hype
A potential Pacquiao-Mayweather bout would likely be the largest-grossing boxing match in history. Predictions for the pay-per-view sales alone have reached as high as 5 million. Pacquiao is the top-ranked fighter in Ring Magazine's pound-for-pound ratings of the world’s best boxers with Mayweather sitting at No. 2. They’re each in their prime - Pacquiao is 30 and Mayweather is 32 - and each fights at welterweight.
Pacquiao, who is 50-3-2 with 38 knockouts and holds the World Boxing Organization welterweight title, has been named the Fighter of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America in 2006 and 2008 and is almost certain to win it in 2009. Mayweather, who is 40-0 with 25 knockouts, was the BWAA’s Fighter of the Year in 2007.
Comparisons have been made between Mayweather and Pacquiao's fights against similar opponents. Mayweather in 2007 defeated Oscar de la Hoya for the World Boxing Council Light Middleweight championship in the highest grossing fight in boxing history. In December of that year, Mayweather also defeated Ricky Hatton by way of 10th round Technical Knockout in another high-selling fight. The De La Hoya-Mayweather fight set the record for most PPV buys for a boxing match with 2.4 million households, beating the previous record of 1.99 million for Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson II. Around $120 million in revenue was generated by the PPV. Factoring in the percentages, Oscar De La Hoya ended up earning $52 million for the bout, the highest purse ever for a fighter. The previous record was $35 million, held by Tyson and Holyfield. Floyd Mayweather earned $25 million for the fight. Pacquiao meanwhile was a mainstay on pound-for-pound lists until Mayweather retired, therefore assuming the #1 position as pound-for-pound fighter. Pacquiao, the reigning World Boxing Council Lightweight champion fought De La Hoya on December 6th, 2008 . Pacquiao dominated en route to an 8th round TKO victory. On December 10, 2008, HBO announced that the fight generated 1.25 million PPV buys totaling more than $70 million in PPV revenue. This fight was only the fourth non-heavyweight bout to have more than one million buys at that time, along with De La Hoya-Mayweather Jr. (2.4 million buys) in May 2007, De La Hoya-Hopkins (1 million buys) in 2004, and De La Hoya-Trinidad (1.4 million buys) in 1999. Pacquiao then faced Hatton, ( and won by brutal 2nd round KO. Mayweather then ended his retirement against Pacquiao rival Juan Manuel Marquez,, and defeated Marquez via unanimous decision. The Bout generated 1 million pay-per-view buys, and is just the sixth highest ranking non-heavyweight event to generate 1 million buys on a list headed by Mayweather’s split-decision victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 2007, which had a record 2.44 million. Pacquiao then followed up with a historical victory over Miguel Cotto, . The fight generated 1.25 million buys and 70 million dollars in domestic pay-per-view revenue (preliminary figures), making it the most watched boxing match of 2009.
Significance
The fight is predicted to be the largest-grossing bout in history and might be the most anticipated since Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier met for the first time at New York’s Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971.

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